Marble has been the favoured material of artists since the dawn of Western civilisation, and it continues to inspire fresh works of art right through to the 21st century. Here are some of our
favourite ways that the world’s creatives have used marble in fresh and unique ways.

Apple Watch Charging Dock

Uniting the cutting-edge with the classical, Native Union has just released a charging dock for the Apple Watch. The dock combines a solid block of marble with a rotating metal arm. This gives it e
nough weight to keep the stand from toppling over when users are tapping the touchscreen, and, when combined with the Apple Watch’s night mode, it forms an enviable alarm clock.

Hand-polished marble is used for each product, which was released in 2014 in Milan during April’s design week. If you want to combine state of the art technology with the grandeur of antiquity, this unique use of marble is for you.

Marble vs Bronze Table

While Native Union used marble to give a touch of timelessness to the new, a Chilean studio called GT2P collaborated with New York’s Friedman Benda gallery and used it to reinvent our most ubiquitous piece of furniture by combining the material with one of the oldest-used metals. They call it the Marble Vs Bronze table.

To create each table, they used digital mapping technology to chart veins and decide exactly where each piece of marble needs to be cut. They then remove large sections that are subsequently filled with bronze. The inner tabletop therefore features small irregular bronze accents, with the alloy then coming together at the legs to provide structural support. Because of this craftsmanship, each table is completely unique in and of itself.

3D Rippling Pool

Mathieu Lehanneur, a noted French designer, decided to use marble as his canvas to create a stunning rippling pool sculpture for his Petite Loire installation. Sculpted from a single section of hand-polished green marble, the undulating waves of the 7.5-meter piece are meant to evoke the Loire itself, and extensive 3D mapping software was needed to create an appearance of being “gently ruffled” by the wind.

This is just the latest work from Lehanneur’s Liquid Marble series. The series made its debut in Milan as a static pool that features rippling waves carved from black marble. Housed in a room